Fostering Clutches
by NotSweetSkills0112943
Summary: Sequel to Heroes of Voltron. Leo was having a normal day in Bunker 9, when Jason ran in and shared news that turned his whole week around. They've already been captured by a bunch of Italians, now what? Oh, yeah, now they have to face Leo and Keith's old foster mother, Teresa. Just another day in the life of a hero. DISCONTINUED, READ HEROES OF VOLTRON
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! Welcome back to storytime with Sweet.

Ok, so if you haven't read pat 1 to this, which is Heroes of Voltron, I recommend that you do, because otherwise this could get confusing.

Also, if you found any of the story with Teresa confusing, I am so sorry! I literally just realized that I kinda suck at explaining things, so just let me know you're confused and I will try to clarify things (or, at the very least, make things less confusing.)

Alright, enough chit-chat. I ended HoV with a cliffhanger, might as well fix that, right?

* * *

This stakeout mission had lasted-what? 3 days now? Nico was getting bored and restless, which is really NOT a good thing if you're a demigod.

What's worse is that he was stuck here with Leo Valdez, Keith Kogane, and a dude named Shiro.

Yep, he was hiding his full name.

Nico still couldn't bring himself to tell Leo. If he knew, who knew what would happen? How many fires would they have to put out?

But, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't keep it a secret forever. Leo was already starting to get on his nerves about being here.

"Hey, Leo," he found himself calling. Instead of getting just Leo's attention, however, he got the other's attention as well.

Go figure.

"What is it, Nico?" Leo asked.

Nico would kill anyone and everyone who found out he thought this, but Nico did find Leo kind of hot. No pun intended, but he had Will, and Leo had Calypso.

"It-it's about Teresa..."

Leo was instantly on guard. Nico could see Keith stiffen up slightly as well.

"Leo... Teresa... she..."

Why was it so hard to talk all of the sudden?

Now or never idiot, a tiny voice inside of him said. Nico steeled himself.

"LeoTeresaconvincedyouraunttogiveyouuptochildservices," said Nico. His face turned red when he realized that he had sputtered it all out in one large breath. How did he relaize this? Everyone's confused faces.

"Nico, calm down," said Leo in a placating voice. "Now, repeat what you said."

Why, oh WHY did everyone have to be watching? Not just for Nico's sake-gods, this was embarrassing-but for Leo's as well. This was personal.

"Leo, Teresa... well, she was the one to convince your aunt to give you to child services," said Nico. He thought he had messed that up again, since everyone was still giving him funny looks, but one glance at Leo, and Nico figured it out.

In his nervousness, he had said it all in ancient Greek. Oh, well. At least Nico had kept it personal for Leo.

"How?" Leo asked, still in ancient Greek. Nico was surprised at how calmly Leo was handling this information and plowed through with the explanation.

"She's actually a demigod. A Roman one," Nico explained, consciously keeping the conversation in ancient Greek. What? Leo could tell everyone his own secrets!

"During the second Titan War, Teresa allied herself with Kronos. Apparently, she never made it to Camp Jupiter, and maybe she might just be a descendant of some Roman god. Whatever that is, she was on team Kronos, and she spent years collecting demigods.

"She must have found out about you, somehow, and used the Mist to convince your aunt to give you away. Once she got her hands on you, it was only a matter of time before she killed you."

Most of Teresa's plan still didn't even make sense to Nico himself. How did she find out about Leo? Why did she never make it to either camp? How exactly did she control Leo's aunt? There were a lot more questions that Nico wanted the answers to, but he didn't have any of them.

"My aunt was never the nicest person, though," said Leo. Nico wanted to comfort him, but thanks to his dad's own social skills, Nico had no idea what to do.

Before he could say anything, Keith's communicator went off, signaling 12:00.

Nico cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Right, so..."

Nico turned his attention back to the house where, the same as every day they've been here, Teresa left the house to go buy some mystery groceries. Leo and Keith refused to tell them what she bought, but they did mention that she was always gone for exactly 15 minutes.

"Alright team, let's go," Shiro said. They all followed him inside the house, which was incredibly easy to break into, by the way. It was almost like she didn't lock the doors or something.

"When she's gone, she keeps all the kids locked in the basement," Leo said.

"So kind of you to stop by," said a voice from behind them. They all jumped in surprise to see Teresa standing there in the doorway, a guilty-looking child by her feet.

"Dismissed," she hissed. The terrified child bolted up the steps, taking them two at a time. Nico turned his attention back to Teresa, who actually (without the ice in her eyes, that is) looked like a very pleasant woman. She was a brunette (um... she has brown hair) and she had green eyes. Really, she could pass off as more of a Gaea than Gaea could. In fact, this woman looked like a goddess.

"Leo, Keith, so lovely to see you again!" she said, her eyes still cold as ice.

Leo and Keith both looked like deer caught in headlights. Leo was trembling, as if he wanted to run for it.

"Hello Teresa," he said, once again surprising Nico with how calm his voice was. Teresa's smile grew, and Nico could feel goosebumps crawling around on his skin.

"Won't you sit?" she asked, voice dripping with false kindness. She sat on a recliner and gestured towards the couch.

"I would rather stand," Leo answered. His voice was as cold as her eyes.

"Now, now. That's no way to speak to your mother," she said. Leo tensed.

"You aren't my mother," said Leo, voice hard as a rock.

"That was hurtful, dear," said Teresa, unfazed by Leo's tone. "Whatever makes you say that?"

"The fact that mothers aren't stuck up bitches," Leo said. Nico resisted the urge to laugh and yell burn!

Teresa's smile faded, and Nico could hear soft laughter coming from upstairs. Nico allowed himself to smirk.

This just ticked Teresa off more. Nico smiled, and he allowed himself to laugh. Shiro and Keith must have noticed Teresa's reaction to Nico's good mood, because then they started laughing too.

"Silence!" Teresa barked, and Nico found himself obeying. Wow, ok. This woman could be mean when she wanted to.

Sure, he had heard that Teresa was Leo's abusive foster mother, but Nico had underestimated just how bad she truly was. The smile was back on her face, and Nico could tell she had something sinister planned.

"So," she purred, "That's the game you want to play, eh? Well then, maybe I should give you what you want."

She stood up from the couch and walked over to a door in the stairwell. Teresa pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, opening it wide enough for Nico to see stairs leading downward; the basement.

Nico vaguely remembered the laughter he heard coming from upstairs.

"They're all right down there," said Teresa, gesturing to the stairs. She started heading down, and Nico figured that if this was some sort of trap, she would be trying to head in last.

Besides, he definitely could sense something down there. He glanced at the others, silently asking them what they wanted to do, and they all followed her down the stairs.

It seemed to go on forever, but finally, they reached the bottom. Nico looked around, but it was too dark to see anything. Leo and Keith were looking around frantically, as if remembering their time in here.

They seemed... very disturbed by what they remembered. Nico turned toward Teresa, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He turned toward the stairs, but they had disappeared as well. Or maybe he was looking in the wrong spot.

It was no use. It was too dark down there to see anything.

"Leo, could you shin some light for us?" Nico asked. He turned to where he had last seen Leo, but it was no use trying to see anything at all. It was so dark down here, that Nico couldn't see his own arm.

Then again, he wore black shirts.

But then again, they were always short-sleeved black shirts.

"Leo?"

He wasn't answering. Great, just what Nico needed. What if he had disappeared, too?

"No worries, I got it," said Shiro, who was on Nico's right. Shiro's arm lit up, and finally Nico could see.

"Thanks," Nico said.

"It was all a trick, wasn't it?" Shiro asked. Nico nodded.

"Yeah. I just can't believe we fell for it," Nico agreed.

"Well, did you hear her voice? Something about it..." Shiro muttered. Nico felt like someone had slapped him.

"That's it!" he exclaimed suddenly. Shiro looked at him, and confused expression on his face.

"What's it?" he asked.

"She can control the Mist. Maybe, just maybe, she can also charmspeak! The only question is, how? You can either be born with that knowledge, or you can learn it through Circe..."

Nico stopped talking by that point. He remembered how Reyna used to work for Circe, who would teach her most devoted followers how to do those things. Reyna and Hylla were able to tell when someone was charmspeaking, at the least. Was it possible that Teresa had worked for Circe once upon a time?

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not hearing Keith and Leo," said Shiro. Nico felt slapped again. He had gotten so caught up in his thoughts, that he completely forgot about the situation they were in.

"This can't be a very big basement," Shiro said.

"We should be able to wander around and hopefully stumble into them," he continued.

"Or," said Nico," I could do this."

He reached out with his senses, trying to find anyone. He started with him and Shiro, then reached out a little further. Finally, he found Keith and Leo, huddled together inside a very tiny room. How they managed to find it, and why they huddled there together, were beyond Nico.

"I found them. They're this-"

Nico felt a sudden sense of cold wash over him, and he fell to his knees. He was so cold, his teeth started chattering.

"Nico? Are you alright?" Shiro asked, bending down to help him up. Nico looked up at his face and yelped, jumping back in surprise.

"What is it?" Shiro asked.

"You-you look-"

You know those really colorful skulls that you see on the Day of the Dead? If you don't, feel free to look it up. That's basically what Shiro looked like.

There was also something else about Shiro-as it he wasn't really there. His skin was tinted purple, his hair white, and his eyes yellow. There were red marks on his face, but Nico didn't think much of it, since it was gone in an instant, replaced once again by the skull.

"N-nothing," Nico stammered once his heart rate was back to normal. He still felt really cold though, as if he was swimming in ice water with no clothes on.

He stood up, teeth chattering, and they made their way over to Keith and Leo.

"Guys, what's going on?" Shiro asked when they approached the two. Keith and Leo looked up, and Nico's heart raced again when he saw that they looked like skulls, too.

Shiro jumped back in surprise this time, but Leo and Keith didn't seem to be shocked by Shiro's appearance.

"Sorry, we just..." Leo broke off.

"Panicked," Keith finished. He looked Nico up and down.

"You don't look like a skull," he noted.

"But you do look like you're freezing," Leo said. Shiro put his arm around Nico, who didn't shy away. Instead, he leaned into the touch, soaking up the warmth.

"You're as cold as ice," said Shiro.

"Hang on, I'll get a fire started," offered Leo. He looked around, and occasionally he would bend down and pick something up. He set fire to his hand, and Nico realized just how ghostly everyone looked. They could have been in the underworld.

"Here," Leo said. He had found a bunch of papers to burn, and Nico sat down by the fire, absorbing the heat.

"Thanks," he croaked. His teeth were still chattering, though.

The other three snuggled against him, Leo right in front of him. Nico felt uncomfortable, but after a while, he noticed just how much he really needed this.

After a while, Nico didn't feel physically cold anymore. It felt like the cold was emanating from his bones, spreading throughout his whole body, and turning his skin blue. Literally.

No, seriously, his skin was turning blue. Nico looked down and saw his fingers had taken on an icy blue color.

"That can't be good," Leo muttered.

* * *

And that's a wrap!

Stay posted peeps. And don't ask questions about why Nico got cold, why his skin was blue, etc. I'll explain it later. And again, if you don't know what those Day of the Dead skulls look like, feel free to look it up. I had to, just to make sure I was talking about the right thing.

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy Chalupas!

-Sweet


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys! I know its been a while, and I'm sorry. School is murder, which I'm pretty sure I said once already... I have the memory of a peanut.

Anyway, I know its short, but I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Nico was shaking really bad, but Shiro didn't think it was from the cold. Well, it could have been. Who knows?

"Dude,get closer to the fire," said Leo. Nico nodded and scooted closer to the fire, trying to get rid of the icy color.

Shiro studied the son of Hades. Being the child of the god of the dead, it made no sense that he wouldn't look like a skull-really, he thought Nico would be the only one to look like this.

At least now Shiro knew why Nico freaked out earlier when he saw him.

"Thanks guys, but we should focus more on getting out of here," said Nico, still shaking. Shiro had to give credit to him. Nico was probably freezing to death (no pun intended) yet he was willing to step away from the warm fire to find a way out of here.

"Agreed, but you aren't leaving my side," Leo said sternly. Nico blushed slightly.

"Why not?" He asked, an edge to his voice.

"I found out a couple years ago that I radiate heat," Leo said. "I'm like a portable heater."

He wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders, and Nico leaned into him.

"Thanks…" he mumbled.

"How did you get out of here in the past?" Shiro asked. Surely they remembered a way out.

Shiro's hopes sank as Leo shook his head.

"No way out. We had to wait for the stairs to rematerialize," he said. He glanced to the spot where the stairs used to be.

"How come they disappeared?" Shiro asked. Leo and Keith both shrugged.

"Leo, I think Teresa studied with Circe," Nico said.

"Who?" Shiro asked.

"The sorceress?" Keith asked. Leo nodded, and Shiro was confused.

"She's immortal and teaches magic, right?" Keith asked. Leo nodded again.

"Yeah, and we know a couple of her former students: Reyna and Hylla."

"How does that explain the stairs?" Shiro asked.

"My theory is that Teresa didn't make it to either camp… whether she's a Greek or Roman demigod, she was never claimed, because she never made it to a camp. Instead, she somehow got stuck in the Sea of Monsters, washed up on Circe's island, and…"

Nico paused for a second, trying to catch his breath. Shiro studied his fingers. The frost had spread all the way up his fast, Shiro thought.

"Learned how to control the Mist, as well as charmspeak," Nico finished. He leaned into Leo a little more, and his arms defrosted a little.

"What does that have to do with us turning into skeletons, or Nico freezing?" Keith asked.

"How did any of that happen?" Keith mumbled, adding even quieter, "I'm confused."

"I'm not sure… when did Nico start freezing over?" Leo asked Shiro.

"When we were trying to find you," he answered. "He said he was going to try something, found you guys, and then he just… froze?"

Sorry Leo, but that's the best you'll get, he thought grimly.

"You used your powers?" Leo asked. Nico looked down.

"Will is going to kill you! Especially with that shadow jump you pulled to get off that ship…"

"Don't you think I realize that?" Nico snapped weakly. His lips were tinged with blue, and frost started creeping up his arms again.

"Powers…"

Shiro thought about something for a moment. Leo had fire powers, Nico could teleport and raise the dead and stuff, he himself had a glowing arm, and Keith was half alien. They had a pretty crazy team, which was giving Shiro a pretty crazy idea.

"Do you guys have phones or something?" he asked Leo and Nico.

"No, we don't. No demigod does. It sends up a signal that monsters can use to track us, remember?" Leo answered. Shiro turned thoughtful for a moment.

"So, how do you all communicate with each other?" Shiro asked.

"Iris messages," Leo said.

"You mean the goddess Iris?" Keith asked. Leo nodded.

"Yeah, we throw a drachma into a rainbow, say something, and boom."

"Could you Iris message someone?" Shiro asked.

"Do you see any rainbows?" Leo asked.

"So make a rainbow," Shiro said.

"I can't," Leo said. "I don't have any water."

"What about crystals?" Keith asked. He had started catching on to Shiro's train of thought.

"Where would I..." Leo started, then he seemed to get it.

"My toolbelt?" he asked. Shiro nodded.

"It can only give me things that you can find in a machine shop," Leo said downheartedly.

"Maybe there's something down here?" Nico suggested. Leo looked around for a little bit, thinking.

"Maybe... but even then, it would be too risky moving you," he finally said after a moment. They saw what he meant. Now Nico's arms were completely frozen, his lips a frosty blue. He was shaking uncontrollably.

"Then someone stays here, to keep Nico warm," Shiro said. He turned to Keith. "We can look for some find of crystallized item."

"Be careful. We don't know what's down here," Leo warned. Shiro looked around, slightly panicked, but nodded. This was important.

"We will be. Try not to freeze," he said.

* * *

Ok, so, I have dug myself into a plot hole.

Yay.

The good thing is, I have an idea as to how everything ended up happening.

But you guys know how you know something, but its incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to explain?

I'm having one of those moments with this. I know it, but I don't know how to explain it. I hope I can figure it out.

Until then, try not to be angry with all the confusing stuff I'm leaving here.

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy Chalupas!


	3. Chapter 3

ShadeFireDragon: So, they got the last name from the original show? Ok, I didn't know that. But I'm just going to stick with it, because that's simpler. But thanks for the info!

**You can tell where I type if I do these line breaks I'm on my phone**

Keith was still seriously confused. How would Teresa have ended up in the Sea of Monsters? What was the Sea of Monsters? Why did Teresa never make it to any of the camps? Was she a demigod? Why did she hate demigods? Why did she hate him, when he isn't a demigod? What if his dad was a demigod, and he hadn't ever known? If his dad was a demigod, did a monster kill him? Were monsters real? Were they hiding down here? Why did he have so many questions, and no answers?

He tried to calm himself down, but it was no use. He felt 4 years old again, as if he was trapped down here for the first time.

_"And stay down there, you little rat!"_

_Teresa had thrown him down the basement stairs. Literally._

_He landed on his hands and knees, trying not to show his tear-stained face. _

_"You'll come out when you learn to behave," she hissed. She slammed the door shut, leaving Keith in total darkness._

_He had turned around, looking for the stairs, but of course they hadn't been there. He had started crying, then even harder when he heard the voices. Thousands of them, screaming in eternal agony._

Now that Keith thought about it, he wondered how he hadn't gone insane. Teresa had left him down there for... what... 3 hours? It had been difficult to tell.

"Hey, you alright?" Shiro asked from beside him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, not looking Shiro in the eyes.

"Where do you think we could find something crytal-ish?" he asked. Keith smiled a little.

"Not sure," he said. Keith suggested Shiro light up his arm, so they could see.

The basement looked much different from when Keith had been in here last. For one thing, it was much bigger, and definitely darker. He remembered that Teresa hated the dark, and she never came down to the basement by herself. He wondered why.

"Ooh, look at that," Shiro said, pointing to a spot just ahead of them. It was hard to make out with all the darkness, but upon closer inspection, Keith could see it was a dog.

But not just any dog.

It had to be at least 3 times larger than any dog he'd ever seen, with glistening fur as dark as night.

"What is it?" Shiro whispered.

The dog turned and growled at them. Keith felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Every bone in his body told him to run.

Instead, he stared the beast down, trying not to show his fear.

It lied down, wagging its tail. Keith could see a collar on the thing.

"Mrs. O'Leary?" Shiro read. Keith shrugged, confused.

"I don't remember it being down here at all," Keith said.

Shiro walked up to it and started rubbing the head. Mrs. O'Leary stuck her tongue out and wagged her tail harder, eventually rolling onto her back and dropping her head into Shiro's shoulder.

"Aw, she's friendly!" Shiro cooed. Keith still felt like running, but she wasn't attacking (or trying to eat) Shiro, so Keith walked up to her as well. Who knew giant black dogs liked to have their bellies rubbed?

"Maybe one of us should run back and tell the others," Keith suggested, and Shiro ran off in the direction they came from. He came back a moment later, saying that Leo told them to bring her, and they went.

"Oh, thank the gods," Leo said. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed at his hair and nuzzled him with her nose.

"Ah! Wet!" Leo yelped.

"Mrs. O'Leary, what are you doing here?" Nico asked, though Keith could hear the relief in his voice. She barked once, putting her paw on his head, then rested her tail on Shiro's shoulder. She was still nuzzling Leo's hair, but she stopped to look at Keith.

"You want me to pet you?" he asked her. He started stroking her fur, and she rested her chin on Leo's head again.

A familiar lurch struck Keith, and suddenly they were outside. Mrs. O'Leary disentangled herself from everyone, then disappeared. She came back a moment later with two people, one of which Keith recognized.

"Piper?" he asked. She blinked, looking severely confused.

"Wait...what am I doing here?" she asked. The guy who was with her took one look at Nico and blanched.

"Oh, gods... NICO!" he exclaimed. Immediately, he was by the freezing kid's side, checking his pulse, obsessing over him, and trying to get him to drink some... Gatorade?

"What happened to him?" the kid demanded.

"Geeze, calm down Will," Nico muttered. He took another sip of Gatorade, and Keith was amazed at how quickly his color was returning. "I'm not dying or anything."

Keith was about to say that he was, but Leo put a hand on his shoulder, signifying that it would do more harm than good.

"I need to get you back to camp..." he muttered. Then, in a doctor kind-of voice, he said, "Two days in the infirmary."

He ignored Nico's protests and turned to Shiro.

"Where were you guys?" he asked.

"Um... we, um..." he stammered.

"Locked in the basement of Teresa's house," Nico answered for him.

Piper paled. Leo and Keith glanced at each other, both thinking the same thing.

_How_?

How had Mrs. O'Leary known they needed help? Or was she just there at the right time? If that's the case, what was she doing there? Why did she bring Piper here? Also, WHY THE QUIZNAK WAS NICO FREEZING?

More questions, less answers. And they both knew there was only one place to get them.


	4. Note

Ok, so I'm discontinuing this story here because the thing I've come up with is a bit complicated... it would be easier just to keep it all in one spot.

Also, I'm not worrying about the amount of chapters anymore. I found a Fanfic author who has 82 chapters in their story, so I don't have to worry about a chapter limitation or something (that's legit what I was afraid of so...)

I'm putting this story, and the rest of it, in Heroes of Voltron. With a few edits to the current chapters. Thanks for reading.

Yours in demigodishness and all that, vrepit sa my Holy chalupas! See you on the creature trail.

-Sweet


End file.
